The all-terrain shredder, Sage Kotsenburg, released his Dopamine Collection. Built to be ridden every day, everywhere.

Here's a little interview with the man himself for more details on the creation of this capsule.

Sage Kotsenburg: The Dopamine Effect

A Conversation on Chasing Feelings, Not Just Features

Interview by Evan LeFebvre

Sage Kotsenburg doesn’t chase medals. He doesn’t chase recognition. He chases good times with the

homeys and a slightly better version of himself—and driven by that pursuit, he chases a feeling. That

floating moment mid-line when everything clicks. When instinct takes over. When the noise drops out

and the buzz kicks in, as primal as it is poetic. That’s the hit. That’s the high. The kind of dopamine

delivery no social media metric or material mirage can match. That’s the real deal.

This isn’t another signature collection with fun artwork and a pro rider’s name slapped onto standard-

issue gear. It’s a philosophy in motion and a product of persistent presence—built to support the kind of

riding that reminds you why you started. The kind you think about before you get to the hill. The kind that

unlocks that feeling. The Dopamine Collection isn’t about tricks. It’s about triggers—what lights you up,

moves you forward, and keeps you coming back. In our exclusive interview, Sage unpacks what it

means to build from feeling, ride with purpose, and stay tapped into what makes you feel most alive.

Tell me about the collection, from your perspective.

Yeah, it’s a capsule of snowboard product designed to ride how I like to ride—and I like to ride

every day. You can see it from the boots to the bindings, and especially the new board, the Sky

Pilot. The Sky Pilot’s meant to be your new daily driver—you can rip it everywhere. I think the

whole capsule has been designed to fit a rider that wants to be shredding as much as possible

—any hour they can get on the mountain, they’re there.

It’s reflective of your style and needs, but it was developed with the people riding it in

mind, which is unique for a signature board. It’s less about you and more about “us”.

I feel like, as tech in snowboarding evolves, everyone’s always trying to tweak stuff. And we’ve

learned a lot. The bottom line is, for a pro rider in a pro rider scenario—much like a pro golfer

on the tour—you need a super specific set of clubs to perform at that level. But if I just want to

rip around and have fun, riding the same terrain as everyone else, I don’t always want to be on

a super intense board. I don’t need a super stiff board tailored for hitting huge jumps. I want to

be riding what the rest of the crew is riding—the homeys. I want to be on that board too.

It’s a different tool for a different riding experience.

Exactly, they’re just different. And that’s where I think, within the collection, we have the Sky

Pilot, which is a totally new board. It’s designed to ride powder but with a freestyle edge of

course, and it also rips carving and is so fun to rip around the mountain and have a good time

riding whatever you want to ride.

And then we have the Antidote, which is like an ATV assassin. We actually took a couple

notches off the stiffness this year—about 10% less—and it rides so much better. Everyone who

hopped on it this year was like, Oh my god, this is how the board should have been from the

start, which really supports that idea of “us” because that’s who this is for, not just me.

Sometimes I’d hop on the Antidote and just cruise. And now, with that 10% reduction in

stiffness, it’s like, Oh, this is where that board should be all the time. I can still hit a jump fine—

we were going like 115 feet this year—but then I took it to Woodward and actually had a ton of

fun on it, where before I wouldn’t really take the Antidote to Woodward.So, going back to it, you have the Antidote—the ATV assassin—maybe a little more of a

specific ride, but still very fun and less intense than it was in past seasons. And then you have

the Sky Pilot. It’s designed to ride powder with a freestyle edge, but it also just rips carving and

is so fun to rip around the mountain and have a good time riding whatever you want to ride.

Are you actually riding the 10% softer Antidote? I know at times certain riders will have

special boards made that aren’t exactly the same as the production runs.

Yeah, I’m glad we’re talking about this—yes, that’s what I’m riding. We made two samples, and

straight up I figured, Yeah, I’ll probably ride it sometimes, then go back to the stiffer one. But I

started riding it and was like, No—just make these. These are so much better. I didn’t need the

other one—it sat in my board bag all winter.

The idea of a quiver is not new, but looking at your boards, it’s kind of like the perfect

compact micro-quiver for anybody who’s—maybe not fully serious—but at least semi-

serious about freestyle riding. Like you said, it’s for riders that are getting after it.

Exactly, yeah, it’s a good way to put it. Obviously, quivers aren’t new, but people love to harp

on them or call a board a “quiver killer.” I’ve always kind of bounced between two boards—

usually more of a daily driver, a go-to, and then one that’s maybe a bit more of a beast. I’ve

kind of always gone between two boards; that’s all I need.

I get the appeal of a “quiver killer”—it even sounds cool—but having two boards isn’t a

crazy idea, whether you’re a pro or not. It used to just be a park board and a pow board,

so owning a couple boards is nothing new.

It’s not new, and if your focus is on killing the quiver, you’re like, Yeah, cool. It’s a great ATV,

which means it’s going to be pretty good at everything—but not exactly. There’s something to

be said for having a couple of clubs in the bag, you know? And like you said, bouncing

between two boards is easy. Deciding between a board like the Sky Pilot or the Antidote is a

pretty easy choice, because if you’re not totally sure what the day is going to be like, the Sky

Pilot’s going to be great.

And if you’re choosing the Antidote, it’s probably because you know it’s that sort of day—

you know you’re taking it out.

Word, yeah—because I know it snowed three feet, and we’re going to go jump off stuff, or I’m

going to ride pow in the morning and park in the afternoon. And I’m even thinking outside of

filming days—pretending there weren’t filming days—just a day where you want to get it, and

you’re a rider that’s gonna get it, you know? So yeah, the two-board combo is how I’ve always

ridden. Even before I was riding the Manifest and the Alchemist, I never really had three boards

—I’ve never traveled with three different boards. Two’s nice.

It’s a lot. It’s like, I go on a trip, and I bring five pairs of pants—and I wear one.

Exactly, every time. Too many things. You’re like, Now I’m just lugging around all this stuff.

And not to go on a tangent—but there’s this concept called the Paradox of Choice.

People generally think having more choices is better, but if you limit the choices, it

actually reduces anxiety. When there are too many options—like picking somethingsimple from a shelf—you can end up second-guessing yourself later, wondering if you

made the wrong choice.

That’s why some people stick to a simple uniform or routine. It’s not that they’re

uncreative—they’re just busy and don’t want to waste mental energy on small decisions.

That’s tied to something called decision fatigue—the idea that the more choices you

make in a day, the more mentally drained you get. Reducing those small, repetitive

decisions frees you up to just get up and go without overthinking it.

I know we’re talking about boards, but that’s basically how the Orton boot came about. I

wanted a boot I could ride all year without switching. I needed something stiff—my ankles are

pretty beat from years of riding—but not in a way that breaks down fast. The goal was to avoid

that cycle where boots start super stiff, then pack out quickly and create pressure points, or

just collapse. This one stays consistent: stiff out of the box, then it breaks in after a couple of

days and just holds that feel. I’ve been in the same pair for months, and they still feel solid.

And on the boot thing—sure, it’s not weird to have a couple of boards you switch

between, but having a “quiver” of boots? That’s wild. Whether it’s a big contest or just

riding at the resort, I want one pair that’s broken in, fits perfectly, and is comfortable all

day. Switching boots for different situations would feel insane.

This year, I rode one pair until March before they finally blew out, then switched to a fresh set

I’ll probably take to Chile and maybe Europe. By the end of it, I’ll have 75 days on them—no

problem. I hate changing boots, and I think most people do.

It’s like changing trucks on a skateboard—once you’ve got them dialed, you don’t want

to switch until you have to.

Back to dopamine—on a higher level—what’s your relationship with dopamine? The

chemical, not the collection.

Yeah, I’m always trying to get that dopamine in.

I mean, aren’t we all? It’s subtle—the places you can get it from. But I’m just curious.

I need that dopamine, bro. People like us are always chasing the real stuff, right? You don’t

want to be sourcing it from an Instagram feed—you want to hit that front three, the homeys are

at the bottom, and you’re like, Fuck yeah, that was dope. That’s the vibe.

But with something like a big front three, you’re not just getting dopamine—you’re

getting adrenaline, the sunlight, and your friends at the bottom clapping. That hit’s just

bigger and more real than the little digital drip you get from a screen, and it comes with

all these other good things. I don’t think most people really consider where they’re

getting their dopamine from, or why they’re attached to certain things because of it.

That’s why I like unpacking the name on that level—so you at least know what it is and

where you get it from. That way, you’ve got a shot at being more intentional and aware.

And you might be surprised.

You’re chasing that thing, and it can be so fulfilling to get that little hit. Even just clipping up

with your crew, you know? Like, Yo, let me see that clip. I’m on that clip high. I think that’s why

we all go film. Someone just asked me why we even make snowboard movies. It’s secondnature. It’s like skating or snowboarding—you’re in the park, you get a trick, and you’re like, We

need to get that on film. I want to see it, put a song to it, edit it a certain way. It’s such a simple

thing, but it’s shaped our whole culture—this thing we do.

When we think about dopamine, the dose matters—and there are both positive and

negative sources. The goal is to be mindful about getting it from a good place,

intentionally. Hopefully, we can encourage people to seek the positive kind: get out in the

mountains, go wherever you go, get outside, get offline, and get it. Through consistency

and repetition, if you keep getting it from a good place, you’ll build new neural pathways.

You hear it all the time—especially during COVID—when people were picking up new things

like snowboarding and falling in love with it. They’d be like, I’m so addicted to snowboarding

now. Before, they were online all the time, but then they got into the mountains and, like you

said, started developing new neural pathways. Suddenly, this is what they wanted to do

instead of just sitting in their room watching TV or scrolling. They were chasing something real.

It’s so sick, and it’s so important. It changes your brain chemistry, your priorities—and it can

change your life. It’s crazy.

Ok, back to boarding—the Antidote light.

Yeah, so we detuned it just a bit, and it really came alive—Antidote unleashed. It opened up

what that board could and should be. I kept saying it all winter: Damn, it’s crazy how much fun

this board is now. It can handle the gnar, but it’s still such a fun ride. The lesson was that

sometimes it’s not about what you add, it’s about what you take away. In this case, adding

10% more would have been 20% too much—it was about removing something.

And that takes finding the edges—whether it’s riding, board design, or whatever. You’ve

got to push it a little too far sometimes to see where the edge is, then bring it back in. It

might be too soft at one point, but going back and forth is how you get the pendulum in

the middle, which is sick and natural. With the Sky Pilot, I know you guys designed that

from the ground up—it’s a completely new board.

Yeah, it was very much a totally new board. Our goal in making this board was to have anyone

—someone that rides a bunch—hop on it and instantly feel like it’s their best friend. Hop on it

and be like, Dude, this is my favorite board right now. It’s a huge task, but that’s what we

wanted to make—something that Jerm [Sage’s friend & filmer Jeremy Thornburg] can hop on,

I’m on one, and we’re both like, How fun is this thing right now?

We went through 20 prototypes—we ran it up on the prototypes, for sure—because we were

tweaking everything on it. We wanted to see what different cambers could go into it, and we

wanted to go in completely unbiased. J Stone [K2 Design & Development Engineer] wouldn’t

tell me what camber was in it because, at least in theory or in my head, I don’t really like

reverse camber boards. I’d just be like, Nah, I don’t like reverse camber. He wouldn’t tell me

what any of them were, but to get where we wanted to go, that’s how it had to be.

As we started narrowing it down, he told me the one we ended up on is reverse in the tail,

camber in the middle, and then reverse again. Naturally, you’re like, that’s probably the

friendliest camber combination you could have. It was just funny—I wouldn’t have designed it

that way if you’d just let me design a board.

Yeah, that’s the beauty of it—you don’t bring those preconceived agreements in your

head to it.Yeah, because when we went into the Antidote, I was like, Let’s build a camber board meant

for this type of riding in these types of environments. And then for the Sky Pilot, instead of

saying what the board was going to be or where it was going to be ridden, we kind of let it

come to life on its own, with our goal for how it should feel and how it should ride. I didn’t care

how we got there—let’s try everything. And I was in the dark on the details, which was kind of

cool because there were no preconceived notions about anything. No rules, except they have

to hop on it and love it.

So it was no rules when it came to the engineering, but the rules were more about what the

ride experience had to be. I didn’t care if it was reverse, early rise—whatever. I just wanted to

know: do I feel like this thing’s super fun or not? And I remember the last day—we were down

to two or three models—and J Stone hopped on this one, looked at me, and was like, You

gotta ride this thing. I hop on it and I’m like, Dude, this is my favorite board I’ve ever ridden. It

was a pow day, and I looked at Jerm. I was like, Dude, you gotta hit this. He took a run on it,

looked at me, and said, I don’t need another board. This is it.

What is it about a product that makes it feel right to you?

If you look at the product just sitting there, and it makes you want to go shred—if it gives you

that feeling just by looking at it—that’s all you need.

I bet you that’s dopamine.

There probably is. Look—if you buy the board, I promise you’re gonna have fun, you’ll be

stoked on it. But for free, you can just look at pictures of it for a while and get stoked! But for

real, we designed this for everyone to have a bunch of fun on. We’re all out here ripping at the

end of the day, and if someone is looking for the same thing I am—if they want to shred their

face off every day—this is it.